Pistons’ “three bigs” lineup of Andre Drummond, Greg Monroe and Josh Smith. The Pistons are force-feeding this trio, trying to get it to work, but it remains a mess on the defensive end. Check out these numbers from Sunday night: When they were together the Lakers averaged 127.8 points per 100 possessions, shot 59.6 percent, hit 7-of-13 from three, which means an eFG% of 66.4 percent, and Jordan Hill went off against the Pistons for 24 points and 17 rebounds. The Lakers were able to run that trio and just space them out with shooters and beat them, plus Piston bigs got burned on their man cutting back door all night, or they just would lose track of their man in general. On offense there is now flow or spacing with them together. This is not a new thing, on the season teams are shooting 51 percent against this trio with an offensive rating of 114.8 (for comparison, the Bobcats had the worst defense in the NBA last season at 108.9). The Pistons have other issues as well (Brandon Jennings and Rodney Stuckey don’t help the defense at all) but what happened against the Lakers is the norm right now. Is Maurice Cheeks a guy who can fix this?

Jordan Hill, Los Angeles Lakers. David Thorpe (he of ESPN and Executive Director of the Pro Training Center) likes to say “energy is a skill.” That is Jordan Hill’s skill. Against the big Pistons’ front line Sunday he had 24 points on 11-of-16 shooting, he knocked down some baseline jumpers, and he had 17 rebounds. Hill outworks the competition, and if you pair him with Jordan Farmar there is a real pick-and-roll chemistry that works for the Lakers.

Rudy Gay, Toronto Raptors. He has had a rough season (37.5 percent shooting, trade rumors hanging over his head like the Sword of Damocles) but when the Raptors needed him Sunday he played like the guy they hoped he would be. Gay had 11 fourth quarter points to spark a 10-point comeback by the Raptors to force OT against a good Blazers team — an he hit the driving layup to tie the game (he’s shooting just 47 percent in the restricted area this season, another issue he overcame Sunday). Gay finished with 30 points. He got a “B” because he was 1-of-4 in the OT and a not very efficient 12-of-27 on the night (he’s still a gunner) but he made plays when they needed him, which is a step in the right direction.

Zach Randolph, Memphis Grizzlies. We could have him on this list more often as he just consistently puts up numbers. No, not the best defender ever, you can go ahead and pick the team apart his game if you want, but he had 22 points and 10 boards against Sacramento on Sunday and was a key cog in the Grizzlies’ victory. As he is most nights. Thought it was time to recognize him.

Mike Malone, coach of Sacramento Kings. Malone got so frustrated with his starters in the second half — who had gotten off to another slow start, let the Grizzlies lead balloon to 20 and had shot 12-of-32 to that point — that he benched the lot of them. For the rest of the game. And the Kings’ bench made it interesting, getting it all the way down to 3 points (82-79) before the Grizzlies starters restored order. But we here at PBT applaud coaches who make big, bold moves when their team is struggling and seemingly not trying.

DeMar DeRozan is having one of those seasons for the No. 2 team in the Eastern Conference, the Toronto Raptors. During Thursday night’s win over the Minnesota Timberwolves, 124-110, DeRozan scored 27 points while adding eight rebounds, five assists, and shooting a whopping 13 free throws.

DeRozan also sealed the victory in the final minute with a huge put back dunk.

The Raptors led by 9 points with a minute left as they were inbounding the ball. A long pass from the baseline to a streaking DeMarre Carroll resulted in a blocked layup, but DeRozan was there to clean up the mess.

Here’s what you missed Thursday around the NBA while you were drinking homemade glow-in-the-dark beer with jellyfish genes in it (no, you try it first, I insist)…
1) Don’t play Memphis in a close game, they just find a way to win. Last week, when Mike Conley went down with a back injury and was going to miss six weeks (give or take), we questioned if Memphis could keep their heads above water. They promptly went out and lost to a very good Toronto team.

Since then they have won five in a row, capped by an impressive 88-86 win over Portland Tuesday. Impressive because:

• Memphis is now 12-0 in games that were within 3 points in the final minute. You get in a close game with Memphis, you lose. (Statistically, we know some of that is luck, that there will be some regression to the mean, but that stat has propelled a team has been outscored by nine points this season, one that should be 12-12, to the 16-8 record they have.)

• Memphis trailed Portland 79-68 with less than five minutes to go, and still won.

• Marc Gasol had 36 points and has been an absolute beast since Conley went down, doing whatever it takes to win.

• Toney Douglas — a guy the Grizzlies just picked up off the street this week, basically — comes in and is clutch down the stretch for them, including hitting the game-winning free throws with 0.5 seconds left (Damian Lillard tried to argue the call, to no avail).

The schedule gets tough for Memphis the next couple of weeks — Golden State, home-and-home with Cleveland, then Boston and Utah looming not long after — but do not doubt the Grizzlies. No team is as resilient as this bunch.

2) Bulls prove Spurs aren’t perfect on the road. It was bound to happen, the San Antonio Spurs were 13-0 on the road, they were going to stumble at some point. That point turned out to be Thursday night in Chicago, where the Spurs came out of the gate like they went out and had a big pregame meal of Lou Malnati’s pizza — 32 points on 30.6 percent shooting in the first half for San Antonio. The Spurs didn’t defend poorly, for example Kawhi Leonard held Jimmy Butler to no first-half points — in fact, midway through the first quarter Taj Gibson and Robin Lopez had scored almost all the Bulls’ buckets — but the San Antonio offense was dreadful. Throw a little credit to the Chicago defense if you want, but this was more San Antonio stumbling than a Chicago return to the Thibodeau era.

The Bulls were up 12 at the half and were able to hang on despite a strong second 24 minutes from Leonard (17 of his 24 came in the second half) and get the win. Dwyane Wade had 20 points and hit a couple of key buckets late to stabilize Chicago. For a Bulls team that is going to be in a playoff battle all season — they are the seven seed right now, one game ahead of the Pacers in ninth — these kinds of wins at home can prove huge.

3) What is it with Minnesota and second half? On the road, the Minnesota Timberwolves had played the Toronto Raptors even for the first 24 minutes — it was 59-59 at the half. And yet, there was a sense of dread for Timberwolves fans because all season their young team has just come apart in the third quarter — and then Toronto opened the second half on an 11-2 run. Minnesota, to their credit, crawls back into it, but midway through the fourth the Raptors go on a 17-4 run sparked by Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan, and the Raptors pull away for the 124-110 win. The Timberwolves lost another game because they can’t defend well.

Minnesota shows flashes of the kind of brilliance that has everyone thinking they might be a contender in a few years. But we all expected too much too soon from this group. Those impressive stretches are followed by ones where they play like a young team, they don’t defend well, and they throw those good efforts away. Not that they were going to beat a good Toronto team on the road, but the Timberwolves can be frustrating to watch. Patience is hard, and Minnesota fans are being asked to show a lot of it. We can debate if it’s time to bring Ricky Rubio off the bench and let Kris Dunn sink or swim, but that’s not the core problem. Ultimately, the Timberwolves are young and playing like it. They don’t know how and aren’t putting in the effort to defend well yet. Karl-Anthony Towns, Andrew Wiggins, Zach LaVine, they can be the core of a contender eventually, but there is a lot of learning to do along the way. Tom Thibodeau can teach them. But it’s going to require patience.